Either support or retract wiretap claim

Express-News Editorial Board

Published
3:17 pm CDT, Thursday, March 23, 2017

FBI Director James Comey testifies Monday during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing concerning Russian meddling in the 2016 United States election. Also testifying was NSA head Michael Rogers. Comey said the FBI had no information on President Trump’s wiretap claim and disclosed an investigation on Russian interference in the U.S. election and whether there was an collusion with the Trump campaign. less

FBI Director James Comey testifies Monday during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing concerning Russian meddling in the 2016 United States election. Also testifying was NSA head Michael ... more

Photo: Zach Gibson /

Photo: Zach Gibson /

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FBI Director James Comey testifies Monday during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing concerning Russian meddling in the 2016 United States election. Also testifying was NSA head Michael Rogers. Comey said the FBI had no information on President Trump’s wiretap claim and disclosed an investigation on Russian interference in the U.S. election and whether there was an collusion with the Trump campaign. less

FBI Director James Comey testifies Monday during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing concerning Russian meddling in the 2016 United States election. Also testifying was NSA head Michael ... more

Photo: Zach Gibson /

Either support or retract wiretap claim

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Earlier this month, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to declare that former President Barack Obama had tapped his phones, providing no evidence for such an explosive allegation. Obama and intelligence officials flatly denied the claim.

The president should be embarrassed but won’t be. And his claim of wiretapping is still unsupported by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes comments Wednesday that monitoring of foreign officials may have “incidentally” picked up Trump aides. Such routine monitoring of foreign officials does not amount to wiretapping of Trump.

Comey’s testimony represented direct refutation that such wiretapping took place. Comey also made plain that his agency is conducting an investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election and whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. This is a big deal.

Before the hearing, Trump accused Democrats of fabricating allegations of Russian contacts and also tweeted, “The real story that Congress, the FBI and all others should be looking into is the leaking of classified information. … Must find leaker now.”

And this is just another indication that when the president is under intense scrutiny, his first instinct is to attempt diversion.

But the way members of the committee mimicked this theme in their questions, attempting to put the spotlight on leaks rather than possible crimes, reveals somthing else: The public cannot reasonably expect a nonpartisan look at the central issue in all this controvery. That’s whether a foreign power — Russia — interfered in a U.S. election to favor a particular candidate and whether that candidate’s campaign colluded with that country.

This speaks to the need for an independent counsel or an independent commission, such as the one that investigated the 9/11 attacks. But as for Trump’s other diversion — claiming an Obama wiretap — it is clear there is no credible evidence. Matters needn’t have gotten this far.

“All he has to do is pick up the phone, call the director of the CIA, director of national intelligence and say, ‘OK, what happened?’” Arizona Sen. John McCain correctly said on CNN recently.

Comey’s testimony Monday is proof again that Trump should either provide the American people with evidence or he should retract his claim. And the committee’s conduct is a sign that only an independent counsel or commission can get to the bottom of this issue.